This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, December 18th. Today the Sun will be up for 8 hours and 48 minutes, setting at 5:03, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:16. The Moon, 3 days past full, will rise at 8:36 this evening.
Let’s take our weekly look at the whereabouts of the naked-eye planets. Venus can be spotted in the south-southwestern sky by 5:30 PM, about 30 minutes after sunset. It will set at 8:41 PM. Saturn will be in the south at 6 PM, way above the bright star Fomalhaut. Jupiter is low in the east-northeast, about the same time Venus is first spotted. It will be a good object for the small telescope about an hour later. Mars, rises tonight at 7:44, It will appear above the Moon in the evening. Mars is still considered a morning planet since it is still up at sunrise. By 6:00 AM tomorrow Jupiter will be low in the west-northwest, to the right of the setting Orion, while reddish Mars will be high in the west-southwest.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT – 5 hours). Times will be different for other locations.
Addendum
This is what I call my 8:00 PM planet panorama. Venus is setting the southwest Saturn heading downwards in the southwest, Jupiter high in the east and Mars just rising in the east northeast. The waning gibbous Moon will rise shortly, trailing Mars. The only thing we’re really missing is Mercury which is close to the Sun in the morning sky. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it. Created using Stellarium.
The Moon as it might appear through a small telescope 10 PM tonight, December 18, 2024. Selected features are labeled. Created using Stellarium, LibreOffice draw, and GIMP.
The planet Mercury should be seen low in the southeast by 7:30 AM, tomorrow morning December 19, 2024. Created using Stellarium.
Telescopic Venus, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars (north up) as they would be seen in a small telescope with the same magnification. All the planets are shown for tonight, Jupiter specifically for 9 PM, December 18, 2024. Apparent diameters: Venus 19.7″, 61.1% illuminated; Saturn 16.9″, its rings 39.4″, 4.7 degrees from edge on (closing); Jupiter 47.9″; Mars, 13.3″, 96.3% illuminated. Saturn’s rings are actually much brighter than depicted here. Planetary surface detail is more subtle than shown here. The ” means seconds of arc, or 1/3600th of a degree. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).
The naked-eye planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise on a single night, starting with sunset on the right on December 18, 2024. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 19th. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it. Created using my LookingUp app and GIMP.
This is a low precision ephemeris of the Sun Moon and naked eye planet positions for today and tomorrow, December 18 and 19, 2024. Some of the columns are self-explanatory, others not. The transit column is the time that the body crosses the meridian and is due south. Elong, for elongation, is the angle between the Sun and that body. RA is right ascension, which is the object’s east-west position on the celestial sphere in hours and minutes. Dec is declination which is the north-south position of the object on the celestial sphere in degrees and minutes. R is the distance of that object from the Sun in astronomical units. An astronomical unit is about 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers. And Delta is the distance of that object from the Earth, also in astronomical units. I omit the ‘m’ in am and pm for compactness. The data was generated using my LookingUp for DOS app and displayed as a table by my Ephemeris Helper app.
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